Jerome Calls Thaw Madman.
PHYSICIANS ASSERT YOUNG MILLIONAIRE TO BE DEMENTED--ANGRY PROTEST
BY DELMAS--SENSATIONAL ARGUMENT BY DISTRICT ATTORNEY--BAD FAITH
CHARGED TO COUNSEL--LUNACY COMMISSION IS DEMANDED--THAW’S LETTERS
USED TO QUESTION HIS SANITY--COURT TAKES QUESTION UNDER ADVISEMENT.
After the reading of the shocking affidavit, District Attorney Jerome
swore five of the alienists for the defense, at one time. He sought,
through asking them the same hypothetical question put by the defense,
to prove that Thaw was insane both at the time of the murder and at the
time of the trial.
“I do not believe Harry Thaw was sane at the time he shot Stanford
White, nor do I believe he is sane now,” declared Dr. Graeme M. Hammond.
“I do not know whether he will ever recover.”
Dr. Smith Ely Jelliffe, professor at Columbia Medical School, swore he
was convinced Thaw was crazed at the time of the murder, but that he
“had a sort of insane knowledge” of what he was doing.
Dr. Charles W. Pilgrim asserted Thaw “Did not know the nature or the
quality of his act on the Madison Square Roof-garden.” Dr. Minas
Gregory also swore the prisoner was insane at the time of the crime,
and others made the same statement.
This was a startling change of base for the prosecution. Instead of
trying to prove the young millionaire was sane both at the time of the
tragedy and at the time of the trial, Jerome astounded the legal world
by endeavoring to prove him hopelessly insane. The prosecutor had given
up all hope of securing a verdict which would make the death-chair the
penalty.
Delmas was angry.
“We propose,” he shouted, “honestly to convince you, Mr. Jerome, that
Thaw was insane when he shot Stanford White--and sane now--by the very
witnesses whom you have subpœnaed and brought into court for the obvious
and only conceivable purpose of telling to this jury under oath the
truth and the whole truth.”
The jury was ordered to leave during arguments over further testimony of
alienists.
In his startling argument after the jury retired Mr. Jerome said:
“I want to explain and make my position clear. As I understand the
matter Dr. Hamilton, who was originally called into the case by the
defense, is ready to testify that in his opinion this defendant was
insane, that he was of unsound mind when he committed the homicide, and
that as he sits at the table today he is suffering from a mental
disease known as paranoia, a disease in which the sufferer until the
last stages of the disease is capable of knowing the nature and quality
of his acts.
“I understand that Dr. Hamilton so advised the defendant’s counsel and
that his counsel was then changed.
“I am willing to throw open the door wide, and ask to let all these
facts come out, but I will not agree to Mr. Delmas confining his
questions to these four visits and keep me down to the close limits of
evidence and not be allowed to go into the real facts of the case.
“Your honor knows,” continued District Attorney Jerome, “what my
position here has been all along. We have no right to be here trying
this man if the real facts are known. Your honor knows that I have tried
ever since this case opened to bring out these facts and that I have not
been able to do so.
“If the real facts as to the mental condition of this defendant can be
brought out the court would be shocked and horrified and would stop this
trial instanter. So deeply have I been impressed with all this that I
have served notice on the attorney of record that when this case is
over, if I am convinced they possess the facts that I believe they
possess, I will lay the matter before the Appellate division of the
Supreme court.
“There is not a man who has seen this defendant sitting there at the
table who believes he is capable of advising counsel. We are today
trying a man who is insane, while under the law he is sane. He is a
paranoiac, and while he is insane he is not insane in the eyes of the
law, for strictly speaking he knows the nature and quality of his acts.
“A man named Taylor went to death under exactly similar circumstances.
The Appellate court said that he was insane, but he was a paranoiac, and
while his act was committed as the result of a delusion, this delusion
was not such as would have made his act justifiable had it been true. It
was one of the most gruesome acts the law has ever done.
“In five minutes time,” cried the prosecutor, banging his fist on the
lawyers’ table, “I can show that this man is incapable of advising his
counsel as he sits here in court. I will present facts which will
prevent this trial from going further!”
“In view of the statement made by the district attorney,” said Justice
Fitzgerald, “I now ask that I be given all the information in the
possession of either counsel--all the evidence as to the defendant’s
present state of mind which can be presented to the court. I do this
before instituting the proceedings I understand have been asked for.”
Mr. Delmas wanted to know if a commission in lunacy was under
discussion.
“The court,” replied Justice Fitzgerald, “is asked to hear testimony
while the jury is out of the room, and then to determine its course.”
“All of my own experts, Dr. Bingaman, the family physician, and Dr.
Deemar, the physician to the Copley family, have informed me,” said
District Attorney Jerome, “that this man is suffering from paranoia.
This paranoia is characterized by systematized delusions. While
suffering from one of these insane delusions this man shot and killed
Stanford White.”
“Did your own experts tell you that?” inquired Justice Fitzgerald of
District Attorney Jerome.
“They certainly did,” replied Mr. Jerome, “but from the record of the
case I was prevented from bringing this out. I was bound down to a
hypothetical question, and my witnesses testified only as to the
hypothetical question. There is heredity in this man which he cannot
avoid.”
Mr. Delmas again arose and inquired if a commission in lunacy had been
applied for.
“I so understand it,” said Justice Fitzgerald, “if the court shall so
decide.”
“We are prepared to combat that application,” said Mr. Delmas.
“I have made no formal application,” explained Mr. Jerome. “I submit to
your honor the fact as he sits there the defendant is incapable of
directing his defense. I leave the matter entirely to the court.”
Mr. Delmas declared Mr. Jerome’s charges were entirely unsupported.
“The district attorney’s remarks were made under his oath of office,”
said Justice Fitzgerald, with some display of feeling.
“He has appealed to my conscience, and I now demand the production of
all the evidence which any of counsel may possess.”
Mr. Delmas said he understood Mr. Jerome to imply unprofessional conduct
on the part of the defense in suppressing testimony.
“There was an implication of misconduct,” said Justice Fitzgerald.
“I hear of it today for the first time,” said Mr. Delmas.
Mr. Gleason here asked to be heard in behalf of the defense.
“I desire to say,” said Mr. Gleason, “that when this case began I
attempted to introduce evidence on the very point which the district
attorney now demands, but it was ruled out on his own objections.”
“I remember,” said Justice Fitzgerald, “ruling out such testimony on the
ground that it was in relation to collateral lines.”
“We have made a perfect defense here,” asserted Attorney Gleason, “and
it is the duty of this court to submit that defense to the jury-- --”
“This court does not need any instructions as to its duty,” interrupted
Justice Fitzgerald. “That is a matter the court can attend to for
itself. All I want is all of the information I can get on this subject.
The court wants this information, but if I can not get it, I will have
to act as I see fit.”
For a moment all the lawyers were talking excitedly at once, and Justice
Fitzgerald was forced to rap sharply with his gavel. Finally Mr. Jerome
made himself heard.
“The court has asked for all the facts I have in my possession, and I
will willingly furnish them. I will give them in the form of an
affidavit. I will also furnish the affidavit of Dr. Mabon and Dr.
MacDonald, and if his professional privilege is waived I will have an
affidavit from Dr. Hamilton.”
“The learned district attorney has just said that this defendant is at
this moment so insane as not to be able to instruct his counsel,” broke
in Mr. Gleason in an angry tone, “and now he asks that this man whom he
has dubbed insane waive a privilege.”
“His attorneys can waive it for him,” said Mr. Jerome.
“The district attorney knows that that cannot be done,” was the reply.
“We will get the other affidavits first,” said Justice Fitzgerald, “and
then we will discuss that matter.”
Several other clashes took place, and ended in a formal demand by
District Attorney Jerome that a commission in lunacy be appointed to
pass on the mental condition of Harry Thaw, that the young prisoner
might be sent to a mad-house at once if found insane. Justice Fitzgerald
asked time to consider the question, and demanded from both sides the
names of all the alienists involved in the case, to guide him in
selecting a commission.
Jerome was happy. He made this statement:
“The situation is just what I have been looking for all during the
trial. A man who should be incarcerated in an insane asylum should not
be on trial for his life.”
The justice held a special session of court, with the jury absent, for
the purpose of receiving affidavits from alienists for both sides, to
aid him in determining whether or not a commission in lunacy should be
appointed. Mr. Jerome called the court’s special attention to the
following statements by Dr. Carlos MacDonald:
“After careful examination of the exhibits and the hypothetical question
and the testimony and affidavits of Mr. Cobb and assuming evidence
stated in the case to be true, my personal observation, in court during
the trial and also including certain observations that I made of the
defendant in the library of the district attorney’s office on the 27th
day of June, 1906, I am of the opinion that the defendant is now and
for some time past has been suffering from a form of mental disease
commonly known among men skilled in mental diseases as paranoia. Yet it
is my opinion, based upon what has just been enumerated, that when the
defendant killed Stanford White on the 25th day of June, 1906, he was
then suffering from said mental disease commonly known as paranoia, but
that his then mental state was such that he knew the nature and quality
of the act that he was doing ... and that he then and there knew such
act on his part was against the current morality of the people of this
state and in violation of law.
“I am of the opinion, upon the facts above enumerated, that the mental
disease commonly known as paranoia, from which the defendant was
suffering on the night of June 25, 1906, is a form of mental disease
from which it is reasonably certain he will not recover, and that the
discharge of the said Harry K. Thaw would be dangerous to public peace
and safety, and that he should be committed to an institution for the
insane.”
In arguing to secure the investigation of Thaw’s mental state, Mr.
Jerome said:
“As long as forty days ago, Dr. Austin Flint, one of the state’s
alienists, came to me in my office and told me that after watching Thaw
in court every day of the trial he was solemnly of the opinion that the
defendant was not capable of instructing his counsel. I was much
concerned, and with my assistant and Drs. MacDonald and Mabon held a
long conference. I then called in other alienists, and after submitting
to them all the evidence I had in my possession they joined with the
others in declaring Thaw a paranoiac.
“I am convinced Harry Thaw should be tried for his life.”
To strengthen his argument, the prosecutor gave Justice Fitzgerald
several letters written by Thaw to J. Dennison Lyon, his Pittsburg
banker. Some were written before the tragedy and some while Thaw was in
the Tombs, but all, Jerome asserted, went to show Thaw was insane. One
of these letters, written from the Republican Club, was as follows:
“Dear Denny--I’m sorry that the manager of Miss N’s (Evelyn Nesbit)
hotel is an idiot. She stopped one night at a place called the
Cumberland, but was disturbed by street noises. No one was moved, and
all meals were served. Now she has a better place, with a nice
woman--Mrs. Kane (Caine), a friend of her family.
“I never saw this Sweat, nor spoke nor wrote to him. You know of her
misfortunes.
“Mr. Holman married her mother three years too late. He is trying to
keep her quiet, and must do so. Should the facts come out, no one but
would believe she sold the child to the most notorious dastard in New
York. Everything proves it.
“I, and a few other persons, know she did not mean wrong, but since
infancy she was jealous of and disliked the child, and was gulled to an
unbelievable extent by this blackguard and -- -- --”
Some rambling letters about transactions in stocks followed this, and
then came these letters:
“Dear Denny--I’m sorry to trouble you, but I don’t understand. I was
overdrawn $10,063.36. Paid in $8,982.70. (6370). (?) Did you make a note
for $10,000--leaving my balance near $9,000 or make a note for
$1,130.85, leaving no balance?
“I lost almost nothing at M. C. playing. Just $1,400 for four weeks--a
good deal less than the percentage. I bought some pearls and a strong
automobile.”
This letter was written after the trial started:
“Dear Denny--The package arrived safely, but I can’t send them the
slip for 11 (eleven) days, as we thought it best to leave bundle
sealed in Gleason’s desk until he returns. He worked exceedingly
hard circumventing the crooked deal between Jerome’s first
assistant and that judge--and will combine rest with affairs.
Friday he starts for Mexico with -- --. If needed a telegram will
always catch him, then he could be back in two days--if we see a
chance for an early trial before any other judge--but we believe it
will be first week January.
“All very well. Yours very sinc’ly,
“H. K. THAW.
“P. S.--I hope these blackmailers try you again.”
The following peculiar letter no one in court could understand:
“Dear Denny--or Frank: Please try to remember who was -- --. It is
said a relative of his is on my jury. If he is friendly or neutral
only write me a brief answer, but if he had any trouble with you or
I or is unfriendly please telegraph, ‘The iron is,’ eh? I will know
what you mean. I hope he is all right, we can leave jury as it is.
Of course, this is very secret.
“All well. Y in haste.
H. K. THAW.”
The defense presented evidence equally strong, and Justice Fitzgerald
plainly was in a quandary.